Sunday, October 4, 2009

Wikitravel

This has got some serious potential. I've never seen a travel site like this one before. I'm not exactly a frequent user of destination reviews, but in my experience surfing the web, I've always gotten lost on sites like Travelocity and Orbitz -- it always seems like they're trying to sell you something. Those may not be exactly the same type of site that reviews things like Wikitravel, but those are really the only big names I'm familiar with.

This allows people to write reviews on ANY destination with the same familiar and awesome interface that Wikipedia has. The searching and the organization of the site are top notch. But unlike with their encyclopedia, I do see a problem with letting the public edit the entries -- you don't really get the full picture.

I checked out 3 destinations that I'd been to in the past year -- Acapulco, Mexico; Seaside Heights, New Jersey; and of course Narragansett, RI.

A common theme that I found was the lack of negatives in each of the descriptions. Everything was informative, but had a positive tone. They didn't talk about the deficencies that any of them had -- the things that really bothered me about each place. Acapulco was an awesome place, but sketchy as hell for tourists. Seaside Heights is littered with crime, mischief and completely family-unfriendly behavior around every corner -- yet none of that was mentioned. Hell, even Narragansett can be as boring and gay a town as you'll find in New England, but since it was written by a lifelong resident, everything was just glowing in its profile. Well I know a lot of people who fucking hate Narragansett AND Seaside Heights AND Acapulco, yet none of their opinions are reflected in each of these reviews. That makes the site sugar-coated and phony, and thus, shitty at this point.

So to recap -- Love the concept, but it needs some serious work. When it's repaired, I could definitely see this site taking off exactly as Wikipedia has.